Saturday, January 31, 2015

Waterloo
Some Notes

Battle of Waterloo

The battle of Waterloo is one of the most analysed, or more accurately over analysed campaigns and battles of all time. In fact we have an incontestable surfeit of accounts of the campaign and battle.

The great military historian J.F.C. Fuller has it largely right when he says:

The Waterloo Campaign has been so thoroughly investigated and criticized that the errors committed in it are apt to appear exceptional and glaring. They were not, they were the usual errors found in most campaigns.1

The chief reasons that the campaign generated such a storm of writing were that it ended the career of one of the greatest of military leaders of all time and further that it brought into conflict the two most capable military leaders of the time. In this case Napoleon and Wellington.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Last Thoughts of the Year 2014
 
 
Well I'm glad this year is over and a new one is beginning.
 
Pierre Cloutier

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Some Art
 
 
Here are some pictures of some art I saw in New York City.
 
 
Greek Vase
Showing Orestes murder of Clytemnestra

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Journalism as It Should Not Be
Janet Malcolm and Jeffrey MacDonald

Janet Malcolm

The following is an expansion of a comment I made of an article I founded at the Los Angles Review of Books website by  Jess Cotton.1

In the review Mr. Cotton examines several books by Janet Malcolm that touch on legal matters and shows a starry eyed, fan worship of Ms. Malcolm. Here I will only discuss Mr. Cotton’s treatment of the case of Joseph McGinniss and Jeffrey MacDonald. 2

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Maleficent
&
Frozen
Two Stories of Sismance1

Movie Poster
Spoilers!!
Recently Disney gave us two different stories based on classic fairy tales. In the case of Maleficent it is the Disney retelling the tale of its own Sleeping Beauty. This time from the point of view of the central villain, Maleficent. In the case of Frozen we get the story of the Snow Queen suitably and quite thoroughly disneyfied and turned into a tale of two sisters.